The attack happened late last Friday when the suicide attacker drove his bomb-laden truck into the convoy of police Lieutenant General Faisal Malik, who was inspecting troops in the town of Beiji, police said.

In Yousifiya, a town just south of the capital, two people were killed and four wounded in a bombing near a fruit and vegetable market. Another car bomb struck Zafaraniya in south-eastern Baghdad, killing six and wounding 13.